Faced with an increasingly difficult challenge in growing both average revenue per user (ARPU) and numbers of subscribers, wireless carriers are trying to develop a host of new products, services, and business models based on data services. One such service is location services, which provides information specific to a location including actual locations of a user. It is expected that location based services will generate additional business for the carrier, from both the mobile user and content providers.
For the mobile user as well as the service provider, location-based services offer many opportunities. For example, location-based services can increase revenue of the service provider, e.g., network carrier, while improving services to end users, e.g., mobile users. Some examples of location-based services that can be provided to the mobile user include:                Providing the nearest business or service, such as an ATM or restaurant;        Providing alerts, such as notification of a sale on gas or warning of a traffic jam; and        Providing weather reports which are germane to the location where the user is using the mobile device, etc.        
For the network carrier, location-based services provide value add by enabling services such as:                Resource tracking with dynamic distribution (e.g., Taxis, service people, rental equipment, doctors, fleet scheduling, etc.);        Finding people or information for the user (e.g., Person by skill (doctor), business directory, navigation, weather, traffic, room schedules, stolen phone, emergency 911);        Proximity-based notification (push or pull) (e.g., Targeted advertising, buddy list, common profile matching (dating), automatic airport check-in); and        Proximity-based actuation (push or pull) (e.g., Payment based upon proximity (EZ pass, toll watch).        
In addition, location based services (LBS) are convenient for sharing location data between wireless devices to wireless devices and from wireless devices to stationary devices like a home computer or stationary tracking system or content provider, etc. This would allow a third party to determine an exact location of a mobile user such as, for example, a family member, friend, employee, etc.
Two methods are commonly in use to determine the location of a wireless device with a third method starting to become more popular. These methods include signal strength of cell towers that are near the wireless device (e.g., triangulation); GPS triangulation; and exposing the LBS as a web service.
The first method determines a wireless device's location by comparing the signal strength of cell towers that are near the wireless device. This method is called triangulation and is substantially the same method that GPS devices use to determine their location. The difference between cell triangulation and GPS triangulation, though, is the signals they use to determine location. The second method, GPS triangulation, uses satellites to determine a device location. In either case, the latitude and longitude are kept in the location services infrastructure.
Another method includes creating location based services by exposing the LBS as a web service. For example, when a device wants an update from the location-based system, it sends a request with the proper authentication credentials and a unique identifier that describes the device that is being tracked. The LBS returns the coordinates of the device being queried.
To date, though, there are a number of reasons that telecommunication networks have not embraced location-based services. These reasons include, for example, the fact that the latencies associated with precision location determination are high (sometimes several thousand milliseconds) and network carriers have consistently wanted to control all services on the device platforms in play, preventing third party location based services to use device processing power and capabilities. Additionally, from a network perspective, location determination is an expensive operation that consumes significant network resources.
Latency is due mainly to the current call flow which involves several steps. For example, to request location information, the mobile first connects to the network, e.g., location service provider, which, in turn, connects to the location platform. The user then requests location information from the location platform. To obtain the location information, the location platform queries mobile positioning equipment which sends a position response back to the location platform. The location platform then provides this location information to the service provider, which then sends it back to the mobile user. This flow, however, results in a significant delay which impacts services and revenue. Specifically the following components are impacted:                Latency, possibly resulting in suboptimal end user experience;        Throughput issues, which limit the amount of traffic that can flow through the location and MPE (Mobile Positioning Equipment) and LP (Location Platform) infrastructure; and        Quality of Service as a whole, which impacts the relative service characteristics delivered to the end subscriber as a part of standard revenue call flows.        